


dead languages and cold trails

by thatemofangirl



Series: AUgust 2020 [16]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU-gust 2020, Alternate Universe, Architect Steve Rogers, Artist Steve Rogers, Boats and Ships, Gen, Modern Bucky Barnes, Modern Steve Rogers, Supportive Bucky Barnes, Treasure Hunting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25960096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatemofangirl/pseuds/thatemofangirl
Summary: Lack of writing inspiration and procrastination hit me like a slap in the face. I could have done better another day, if I had time to think about this. But for now, this is what I got. I know it's short.Day 16: Treasure Hunter AU
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: AUgust 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858408
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	dead languages and cold trails

**Author's Note:**

> Lack of writing inspiration and procrastination hit me like a slap in the face. I could have done better another day, if I had time to think about this. But for now, this is what I got. I know it's short.
> 
> Day 16: Treasure Hunter AU

Once Steve Rogers set his mind to something, he never gave it up until he got it.

Sometimes Bucky Barnes wished that attitude could take a vacation. Because while he would willingly follow Steve to the ends of the Earth to not only protect him but to stay by his side, he couldn't find a way to tell the man he cared for that as they were sailing through the Mediterranean, they were following a cold trail that had it's last lead over 3,000 years ago.

Yet there they were, Bucky watching with ever growing admiration as he watched Steve try to decipher a three century year old Cretan heiroglyph language that even the best historians couldn't translate completely at the small table on deck.

The sun was setting, and Bucky knew he had to start to try and convince him to go to sleep now, unless he was going to accept that Steve was going to stay up until the next morning working.

"You know: when I said for our honeymoon we should go to Greece, this wasn't _exactly_ what I had in mind?" Bucky smiled when his voice was enough to grab the mans attention, and he crossed his arms casually as he leaned against the doorway that led to the ships main controls.

Steve laughed. "That has to be at least the third time you told me that, Buck."

"Let's go to bed," Bucky said softly, walking to the table as slowly starting to gather up papers and hand written research. He didn't want to mess up any if Steve's work, so he kept glancing in his direction, but his husband didn't stop him or tell him to arrange anything in any specific order so he kept going.

"Make any progress today?" Bucky then asked, handing over the papers he collected to where Steve had already gathered the rest and he added it back to the big binder that housed everything else—the year of research and studying that led to them becoming divers to search the Aegaen Sea for a sunken Greecian cargo ship.

"We have to be close." Steve shook his head, standing up. Bucky frowned, because while he wanted Steve to rest, it was rare he went the first try. He must have been getting frustrated. "We can cover five miles, right? Five miles tomorrow?"

"Yeah Steve." Bucky shrugged. "That's like a half hour of sailing."

"That's not what I mean," Steve caught his eyes, and Bucky saw how they lit up from excitement. It was a peculiar sight to someone who didn't know Steve. One look at the man, no one would think someone as big and intimidating as him could ever change to an expression other than determination and seriousness, but when Steve got excited, he reminded Bucky of a golden retriever; enthusiastic and ready to go. "D'you think we could search five miles tomorrow? If we dived?"

Bucky blinked. "You think we found it?"

"I really do."

For months, a little over a year, Bucky had been Steve's right hand man in assisting him with trying to find a Cretan ship that was rumored to have sunk with the blueprints of the largest and most intricate building design of the period.

Steve Rogers was far from a historian. He studied art and architecture. But when Steve came home from work, bursting through the front door, telling Bucky that his colleagues said that Steve couldn't single-handedly find The Lost Building of Crete, Bucky knew he was in for following Steve on his wild goose chase. The man never backed down from a challenge, no matter how extreme.

And now, here they were. Steve and Bucky having become honorary historians as they travelled the world. Trying do decypher a dead language, and find a ship that could contain one of the greatest treasures from the past.

The next morning, the two of them suited up in scuba gear. And before the sun had even reached it's apex, they were diving deep through seas of fish and scouring the sea floor.

If anyone else other than Steve had tried to get Bucky to search previously unsearched waters for a sunken ship, Bucky would have thought they were insane to try and find it going off of just a language of pictures that no one could make any sense of. But Steve was only a little crazy, and one of the smartest and most stubborn people Bucky had ever met.

They spent three days searching; swimming in intervals and section by section.

But they found the ship. Steve found it.

Bucky was still amazed as he stared at the stone Phaistos Disc back on the deck, carved with pictures. Cretan heiroglyphs.

Whoever had made the prints, sailed the ship, must have known that there was a chance it wouldn't reach it's destination. Because on multiple large stone slabs was blueprints for a temple that even Steve fawned over.

Bucky watched as Steve took pictures and recorded the discovery. This was a monumental point in Steve's career, and Bucky couldn't have been prouder of how far he's come. Even if he reached it just because he wanted to prove some people wrong. How could it have been any more Steve Rogers than that?


End file.
